


Refined Tastes

by speccygeekgrrl



Category: White Collar (TV 2009)
Genre: (of a sort), Drinking Games, Friendship, Gen, Good Taste, Wine
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-18
Updated: 2020-11-18
Packaged: 2021-03-10 06:00:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 851
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27618722
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/speccygeekgrrl/pseuds/speccygeekgrrl
Summary: El needs a favor from a finicky palate. Mozzie is more than happy to oblige her... even if he has a feeling that something is up beyond what she's telling him.
Relationships: Elizabeth Burke & Mozzie (White Collar)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 21





	Refined Tastes

**Author's Note:**

> For the prompt: White Collar, taste, playing games, persnickety.
> 
> If you'd like to prompt me, I'm constantly taking requests [over on Pillowfort](https://www.pillowfort.social/speccygeekgrrl/tagged/prompt%20table)! (And if you need an invite, let me know! I've got plenty to spare.)

"I need your help." Elizabeth sounded desperate.

Mozzie immediately tucked his phone between ear and shoulder and started putting on his shoes. "What's wrong?"

"I have two crates of assorted wine bottles with labels so badly damaged they're basically obliterated. I need your palate to help me figure them out before this event starts in three hours."

"Oh, Mrs. Suit, I would be _delighted_ to assist. What's the event?"

"A bridal shower with a wine and cheese tasting," Elizabeth said.

" _And_ cheese, you say..." Mozzie's natural suspicion immediately reared its head— what if she was baiting him? Luring him in, for... what purpose, exactly? No. Elizabeth was his friend; she wouldn't sell him out, after all he'd done for her in the past. Maybe this was just a happy accident, a karmic return for all the little things he'd done to keep her and the Suit safe that she didn't even know about.

"I know you've got a keener sense for these things than Neal," El added. Mozzie couldn't help himself; being favorably compared to Neal always put a grin on his face. 

"You don't have to flatter me, El, I'm already on my way. If you'll tell me where I'm going, that is."

Fifteen minutes later he came through the back entrance of a beautiful building and found Elizabeth in the kitchen, turning water-damaged bottles over in her hands. "Oh, Moz, I'm so glad to see you," she said, without a hint of insincerity. 

"It's always a pleasure," Mozzie said, smiling back at her. It was nothing but the truth: any time he spent in El's presence without someone's life being on the line was truly delightful. "So what's the situation?"

"Twenty-four bottles of wine, eighteen different vintages, and..." She pointed at one single bottle standing alone from the opened crates. "One readable label."

"Twenty-three bottles to ID? I probably should have eaten something first," Mozzie said wryly.

"I got you covered," Elizabeth said, and produced from a fridge a plate with a fan of baguette slices, stone-ground wheat crackers, black and green grapes, and small chunks of twelve cheeses. "Don't worry, I won't let you get _too_ drunk while you're on the job for me."

"You are one of my favorite people on this cursed planet," Mozzie said fervently, and took her hands to press them between his. "I mean that. You're... too good. Unreal."

"I'm real enough to have my reputation on the line if this goes sideways," she said, and turned her hands over to squeeze him back. 

Elizabeth had a manifest to work from, so they weren't totally blind on the contents of the crates, but Mozzie declined to look at it; it was more like a game if he didn't know, and that turned a favor into something fun for both of them. She poured tasters into little plastic cups that mocked cut crystal, and Mozzie treated each one with the same care and discretion: a swirl and a sniff to gauge the aroma, a sip to see how it hit the tongue, and that was almost always enough to make an identification, but that wasn't going to stop him from drinking the rest of the cup, letting the flavor roll over his tongue so he could add some little comment about the vintage or the winery or the weather in the region where the grapes had been grown.

There was only one wine that Mozzie couldn't match to the list; Elizabeth had ordered a 1999 Arietta Merlot, but Mozzie shook his head definitively when she told him so.

"I'm sorry, El, they ripped you off. This is a 1998. It's so much more tannic than the 1999. It should be _earthy_ , this is _herbal."_

"Rat bastards," Elizabeth muttered under her breath, marking the list. "Like the labels weren't enough of a strike against them. _Definitely_ not getting my business again."

"If you need a new supplier, I've got connections..." Mozzie offered, nibbling the last bit of gouda on a cracker.

"Why, Mozzie, I am _shocked_. Offering your connections to an upstanding businesswoman like myself," El teased. 

"I wouldn't offer if I didn't know you're trustworthy," Mozzie said. "Actually, I've never trusted anyone with this connection before..."

"Oh," she said, and pressed a hand to her chest. "Really? But you trust me with it?"

"El, I trust you with... most things."

"Most...?"

"I can't trust you with anything I need the Suit to never know," Mozzie said. "Because your relationship is... bizarrely healthy and functional compared to most heterosexual marriages I've observed. You tell him everything."

"Not _everything_ ," El said. "Just almost everything."

"What don't you tell him?" Mozzie asked, curious to the end.

"Ah, no... you're a lifesaver, Moz, you and your persnickety palate have saved the day, but I've got to keep a _couple_ of secrets just for me," she said, and pressed a kiss to the side of Mozzie's head.

"I see," Mozzie said, flushing more from the smooch than from the many sips of wine he'd had. He wondered if that would be one of the things she kept to herself.


End file.
